The story on Sandusky’s sentencing started on the front page of the New York Times print edition—and then continued in the sports section. Similarly, the Los Angeles Times’ website posted its coverage of Sandusky’s sentencing on its sports news section. The placement of these articles got me thinking, “Is this a sports story or a crime story? And does it really matter?”

The Sandusky trial underscores the courage required to testify about such crimes. “The victims… have shown great strength and courage,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly, by “candidly and sometimes chillingly telling their stories, not only to the jury in a packed courtroom… but also to the entire world.”

Although he abused his service to the church, Mr. R, a stroke victim who is a convicted child molester, deserves the same care and support as any other priest who has developed age-related dementia and other health problems.

Society has little tolerance for any form of sexual abuse of children, especially in a school setting. All the more reason to remember that the only thing worse than the sexual abuse of an innocent child is a false accusation of the sexual abuse of an innocent child.

The Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal focused national media attention on a dark fact of American life: the nationwide epidemic of child abuse, neglect and endangerment. Tragically, that case was just the tip of the iceberg.

After years of headlines about child sex abuse by clergymen, these cases raised yet another alarm about the failure of institutions to protect children from predators. What do these cases tell us, and how should we respond?

The language in media reporting on the Penn State scandal has been almost universally inappropriate, both in print and television coverage. The media are pervasively using inappropriate language to describe the harm done to Jerry Sandusky's victims.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, and it is an occasion for being reminded that “it should not hurt to be a child.” The soul-destroying, long-term consequences of child physical/sexual abuse and neglect obviously merit a year-round focus, but media attention to such awareness campaigns helps encourage parents, especially mothers, to seek help if they suspect child abuse.

At the same time, however, the long and exhausting journey that parents must take to secure protection for endangered children, often involving legal battles costing many thousands of dollars, is rarely mentioned.

Who wants to hear that no amount of money can assure justice in systems that disbelieve children and distrust protective parents?

It is, however, a grim reality. Parents who act appropriately and lawfully to protect their children may be punished by family court judges for reporting abuse or for refusing to force their terrified child to visit an abusive parent.

In the worst cases, custody is reversed and the protective parent may be denied any contact with his or her child. The message: failure to be a “friendly parent” is worse than child physical or sexual abuse.

The non-profit agency I work for, Justice for Children, often finds itself on the front lines of complex cases of child abuse, arising during separation and divorce, that may be litigated for years. Although Child Protective Services (CPS) investigates abuse reports, these cases are generally treated with suspicion and ruled out as “custody battles” despite urgent, compelling evidence.

Rarely prosecuted by the State, intra-familial abuse allegations are relegated to a domestic relations court of equity where a serious crime against a child is reduced to a civil law question of property. Such courts, in contrast to the traditional adversarial nature of a courtroom, allow judges to apply injunctions or writs instead of monetary damages, according to the principle of “fairness. ”

Family courts in most (if not all) jurisdictions are considered “courts of equity.” A recent New York case in which the Court of Appeals was asked to decide whether a teacher imprisoned for molesting boys can see his own child illustrates the limits of an approach that considers a child just a piece of property to be divided.

The systemic failures and practices that place abused or at-risk children in the care or custody of a dangerous parent are well known, but it has taken over 15 years for these agonizing and sometimes tragic cases to be officially recognized as serious problems in our judicial and CPS systems.

The Catch 22 nature of a parent’s duty to report, and penalties for failure to protect, sinks protective parents in the quicksand of family court litigation. Very little help is available from public agencies or non-profits. Abusers know they have unparalleled opportunities to abuse and control their children and ex-partners with few consequences.

Non-profit advocates have been working for years to get these issues before federal agencies.

Last month, the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) held a Roundtable at George Washington University Law School, sponsored by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence with help from the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project. Judge Susan Carbon, OVW director, , and participants from other federal agencies listened to a panel of mothers and a courageous 13-year-old share their experiences in family court.

In the experts’ panel, we shared our extensive knowledge of how CPS and family courts can fail abused children and their protective parents. A report on the roundtable will be posted soon on the OVW website.

Change must also happen in state CPS agencies and family courts. Court appointees (psychological evaluators, Guardians ad litem, children’s attorneys, mediators and parenting coordinators) should not evade oversight or consequences for negligent practices that harm children.

Policies forcing children to reunite with their sexual assault perpetrators need immediate re-evaluation. These are just of few of the many changes recommended by advocates and legal/mental health professionals.

The worst betrayal a child can endure is sexual/physical abuse or neglect by a parent. Assuring a child that if they tell they will be protected, but then failing to protect heaps betrayal upon betrayal.

We need to carry through on our promises to children. This is the next level of child abuse awareness our society needs!

Here are some further resources for anyone who wants to explore the issue further:

From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running From the Family Courts and What to Do About It, by Amy Neustein, Ph.D. and Michael Lesher, J.D., Northeastern University Press, 2005. www.upne.com/1-58465-462-7.html

I recently heard a hopeful story about a distressing subject—child sex trafficking. A teenage girl, a recent immigrant, had suddenly disappeared from the community center she used to visit, and a social worker set out to find out what had happened to her. The social worker found out the girl had been kidnapped and forced into sex trafficking, and was being raped as many as 25 times a day. The community center worked with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) to have the traffickers (who included the girl’s mother) arrested and prosecuted and the girl placed in foster care.

In this case, law enforcement achieved its goals, and the victim was given a safe place to live and a chance to recover from her ordeal. As a foster care recipient under the jurisdiction of the court, she received a Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) visa, which made her a legal resident of this country. She is also receiving the medical and psychological help she needs to survive.

Yet most victims in her situation would not have fared as well. Most foster care programs do not take teenagers or immigrants, especially without legal status, even though entry into foster care may qualify them for SIJS visas. Few victims are rescued through the swift collaboration of a local service provider and several federal law enforcement agencies. And few child sex trafficking victims ever get the help they need to recover from these crimes.

We can take pride in our nation’s powerful response to trafficking. The Trafficking Victims Prevention Act of 2000, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, and Representative Chris Smith’s and Carolyn Maloney’s recently introduced bill, Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010 (which provides $45 million to rescue and care for minor victims, prosecute perpetrators, and promote educational prevention programs; it would also and require timely and accurate reporting of missing children) show how seriously our legislators take this crime.

But to help victims, we need to do so much more. We need regular, robust collaboration among the U.S. Department of Justice, Homeland Security/ICE, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which provides direction to local foster care agencies. We need federal law enforcement to work with local agencies who know the victims and their communities, and we need HHS to take the lead in encouraging foster care agencies to accept more immigrant children and older teens. In short, we need a comprehensive, compassionate response to victims of child sex trafficking—justice requires no less.